Random pay table multipliers

ABSTRACT

The pay table is modified by using a randomly assigned multiplier associated with each pay category which change for each play of the casino game. The casino game, such as poker, keno or slot machines, has a pay table having at least two pay categories. For each pay category, a multiplier is randomly selected from a group of various multipliers and the selected multiplier is assigned to the pay category. The casino game is played to achieve an outcome associated with a pay category. If the outcome is a winning outcome, any associated award for the winning outcome is increased by the multiplier for that pay category.

This application relates to a casino game such as a video poker game or a slot machine, and more particularly to a casino game such as video poker or a slot machine in which randomly generated multipliers are assigned to the pay table categories.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A well known game of chance offered to players in most gaming casinos is video draw poker. After making a wager, the player is dealt five cards face up. The player selects which cards, if any, the player wishes to hold, the unheld cards are discarded and replacement cards are dealt for the discarded cards. The final five card hand is analyzed to determine its poker hand ranking and the player is paid for winning poker hand rankings based on the amount of the player's wager. A pay table is displayed to the player showing the amounts that the player can win based on the poker hand ranking achieved by the player and the amount wagered by the player. The typical video poker pay table has the highest payout for the final hand card combination that has the lowest probability of occurring with the payouts decreasing as the probability increases of achieving certain final hand card combinations.

Likewise, slot machines also have pay tables for the winning symbol combinations that can be achieved when the slot reels are spun. Again, the typical slot machine pay table has the highest payout for the symbol combination that has the lowest probability of occurring with the payouts decreasing as the probability increases of achieving a winning symbol combination.

Many other casino games, such as keno, use pay tables which display the awards that can be won by a player for achieving winning combinations.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The pay table is modified by using a randomly assigned multiplier associated with each pay category which change for each play of the casino game.

The casino game, such as poker, keno or slot machines, has a pay table having at least two pay categories. For each pay category, a multiplier is randomly selected from a group of various multipliers and the selected multiplier is assigned to the pay category. The casino game is played to achieve an outcome associated with a pay category. If the outcome is a winning outcome, any associated award for the winning outcome is increased by the multiplier for that pay category.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

A typical video poker pay table assigns award values depending on the poker hand category of the player's final five card hand. These award values are based on the probability of achieving any particular poker hand during the course of play of video poker.

The present invention modifies the video poker pay table by randomly assigning multipliers to the various poker hand categories. The multipliers would be randomly selected by the computer game controls and displayed to the player in a separate column of the pay table. Any suitable range of multipliers can be used, such as integer multipliers from 1× through 10×. The frequency of any particular multiplier being selected can be weighted so that the 10× multiplier occurs less frequently than the 1× multiplier.

A conventional video poker pay table would have the following payouts depending on the number of credits wagered by the player:

TABLE 1 DRAW POKER NUMBER OF CREDITS WAGERED FINAL POKER HAND 1 2 3 4 5 ROYAL FLUSH 250 500 750 1000 4000 STRAIGHT FLUSH 50 100 150 200 250 FOUR-OF-A-KIND 25 50 75 100 125 FULL HOUSE 9 18 27 36 45 FLUSH 6 12 18 24 30 STRAIGHT 4 8 12 16 20 THREE-OF-A-KIND 3 6 9 12 15 TWO PAIR 2 4 6 8 10 JACKS OR BETTER 1 2 3 4 5

In accordance with the present invention, the pay table categories are modified by randomly assigning multipliers to each category. For example, Table 2 shows a pay table having the same categories as used in Table 1, but with multipliers randomly assigned to the pay table categories.

TABLE 2 NUMBER OF DRAW POKER MULTIPLIER CREDITS WAGERED FINAL POKER 1 2 3 4 5 HAND ROYAL FLUSH 1× 250 500 750 100 4000 STRAIGHT FLUSH 1× 50 100 150 200 250 FOUR-OF-A-KIND 2× 50 100 150 200 250 FULL HOUSE 5× 45 90 135 180 225 FLUSH 1× 6 12 18 24 30 STRAIGHT 10×  40 80 120 160 200 THREE-OF-A- 4× 12 24 36 48 60 KIND TWO PAIR 2× 4 8 12 16 20 JACK OR BETTER 3× 3 6 9 12 15

This results in the award value of some categories being higher than the award value of other categories, even though the probability of the higher award value category would be higher than the probability of the lower award value category. For example, with reference to Table 2, the probability of a player achieving a Three-of-a-Kind is higher than the probability of the player achieving a Flush, but a Three-of-a-Kind would pay more than a Flush when the randomly assigned multipliers occur as shown in Table 2.

While the pay tables shown above are based on a regular Draw Poker format video poker game, the present invention can also be used with other pay tables for the other variations of draw poker, such as Deuces Wild Poker, Bonus Poker, Double Bonus Poker, Double Double Bonus Poker, Triple Bonus Poker, Joker's Wild Poker or any of the myriad of video poker formats that have been developed. Each of these video poker formats uses various categories of poker hand rankings as winning combinations and they use various payout amounts for the poker hand rankings. The method of the present invention can be applied to any of the various video poker formats discussed above.

The present invention can also be applied to a slot machine pay table. In a slot machine, when the reels stop spinning, symbols appear along each of the pay lines. If the symbols form a winning combination, the player receives an award based on the particular combination of symbols on the pay line and the amount wagered by the player.

Table 3 shows a representative pay table for a three reels slot machine.

TABLE 3 NUMBER OF CREDITS WAGERED SYMBOL COMBINATION 1 2 3 7-7-7 1000 2000 3000 BAR-BAR-BAR 150 300 450 BELL-BELL-BELL 18 36 54 PLUM-PLUM-PLUM 14 28 42 ORANGE-ORANGE-ORANGE 10 20 30 CHERRY-CHERRY-CHERRY 10 20 30 CHERRY-CHERRY-ANY 5 10 15 ANY ONE CHERRY 3 6 9

The payouts are determined based on the frequency of the winning combinations appearing on a pay line and the game return desired by the gaming establishment. A winning symbol combination that pays a lower award has a higher probability of appearing than a winning symbol combination that pays a higher award. There are many slot machine that have been developed over the years with a myriad of winning symbol combinations and both more and less than three reels. The present invention can be applied to any slot machine regardless of the winning combinations used and regardless of the number of pay lines used.

In accordance with the present invention, the pay table categories are modified by randomly assigning multipliers to each category. For example, Table 4 shows a pay table having the same categories as used in Table 3, but with multipliers randomly assigned to the pay table categories.

This results in the award value of some categories being higher than the award value of other categories, even though the probability of the higher award value category would be higher than the probability of the lower award value category. For example, with reference to Table 4, the probability of a player achieving a winning combination of CHERRY-CHERRY-CHERRY is higher than the probability of the player achieving a winning combination of BELL-BELL-BELL, but CHERRY-CHERRY-CHERRY would pay more than BELL-BELL-BELL when the randomly assigned multipliers occur as shown in Table 4.

TABLE 4 NUMBER OF CREDITS WAGERED SYMBOL COMBINATION MULTIPLIER 1 2 3 7-7-7 1× 1000 2000 3000 BAR-BAR-BAR 2× 300 600 900 BELL-BELL-BELL 2× 36 72 108 PLUM-PLUM-PLUM 5× 70 140 210 ORANGE-ORANGE-ORANGE 1× 10 20 30 CHERRY-CHERRY-CHERRY 10×  100 200 300 CHERRY-CHERRY-ANY 1× 5 10 15 ANY ONE CHERRY 4× 12 24 36

The present invention can also be applied to a keno game pay table. In a keno game, the player selects one or more numbers from a number pool with the number pool being typically containing eighty numbers. A portion of the number pool is randomly drawn by the keno game operator, typically twenty numbers, and the player receives an award based on the number of matches between the player's selected numbers and the drawn numbers.

In a typical electronic keno game, the player may select from one to ten numbers as the player's selected numbers. The lowest probability for a winning payout, but the payout having the highest award, is for matching all of the player's selected numbers, but lower payouts are awarded for matching less than all of the player's selected numbers. The higher the probability of the event occurring, the lower the payout.

For example, Table 5 shows a representative pay table for a keno game in which the player has selected seven numbers that the player hopes to match during the play of the keno game, known as playing a Seven Spot.

TABLE 5 NUMBER OF CREDITS WAGERED SEVEN SPOT MATCHES 1 2 3 7 OUT OF 7 800 1600 2400 6 OUT OF 7 220 440 660 5 OUT OF 7 10 20 30 4 OUT OF 7 2 4 6 3 OUT OF 7 1 2 3 2 OUT OF 7 0 0 0 1 OUT OF 7 0 0 0 0 OUT OF 7 0 0 0

The payouts are determined based on the frequency of the winning combinations occurring during the play of the keno game and the game return desired by the gaming establishment. A number of matches that pays a lower award has a higher probability of appearing than the number of matches that pays a higher award. The payouts are calculated for each of the amount of numbers selected by the player, which are typically one to ten in an electronic keno game and typically one to twenty in a live keno game. The present invention can be applied to any of the various pay tables that are used in either an electronic keno game or a live keno game.

In accordance with the present invention, the pay table categories are modified by randomly assigning multipliers to each category. For example, Table 6 shows a pay table having the same categories as used in Table 5, but with multipliers randomly assigned to the pay table categories.

TABLE 6 NUMBER OF CREDITS WAGERED SEVEN SPOT MATCHES MULTIPLIER 1 2 3 7 OUT OF 7 1× 800 1600 2400 6 OUT OF 7 5× 1100 2200 3300 5 OUT OF 7 1× 10 20 30 4 OUT OF 7 10×  20 40 60 3 OUT OF 7 4× 4 8 12 2 OUT OF 7 0 0 0 1 OUT OF 7 0 0 0 0 OUT OF 7 0 0 0

This results in the award value of some categories being higher than the award value of other categories, even though the probability of the higher award value category would be higher than the probability of the lower award value category. For example, with reference to Table 6, the probability of a player achieving a winning combination of 6 OUT OF 7 is higher than the probability of the player achieving a winning combination of 7 OUT OF 7, but 6 OUT OF 7 would pay more than 7 OUT OF 7 when the randomly assigned multipliers occur as shown in Table 6.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the player would make a first wager to play the casino game and the player would make a second wager to activate the multiplier feature. The use of this second wager would allow the casino game to proceed with customary pay tables and the money generated from the second wager would pay for the multiplier feature.

While the invention has been illustrated with respect to several specific embodiments thereof, these embodiments should be considered as illustrative rather than limiting. Various modifications and additions may be made and will be apparent to those skilled in the art. 

1. A method of playing a casino game with multiple pay categories comprising: a) providing a pay table having at least two pay categories; b) for each pay category, randomly selecting a multiplier from a group of various multipliers and assigning the selected multiplier to the pay category, and c) playing the casino game to achieve an outcome associated with a pay category whereby outcome that is a winning outcome has any associated award increased by the multiplier for that pay category.
 2. The method of claim 1 in which the casino game is a poker game.
 3. The method of claim 1 in which the casino game is a slot machine.
 4. The method of claim 1 in which the casino game is a keno game.
 5. The method of claim 1 in which the player makes an additional wager to be eligible for the multiplier. 